Copyright © 2026 Authors retain the copyright of this article. This article is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

@article{196515,
        author = {Mr. Abhimanyu and Dr. Jitender Kumar},
        title = {“Understanding Nutritional Behavior in Athletes through the Knowledge-Attitude-Practice Model”},
        journal = {International Journal of Innovative Research in Technology},
        year = {2026},
        volume = {12},
        number = {11},
        pages = {5033-5043},
        issn = {2349-6002},
        url = {https://ijirt.org/article?manuscript=196515},
        abstract = {Sports nutrition is crucial in improving athletes' performance, recuperation, and health in general; nevertheless, discrepancies in nutritional habits among athletes have been an issue of great concern. The presented research is expected to analyze a nutritional behavior with the help of the Knowledge-Attitude-Practice (KAP) model, with the help of a systematic review of the latest research. An orderly SLR method was used in accordance with the PRISMA requirements, which led to the incorporation of twelve peer-reviewed studies that were published between 2020 and 2025. The chosen articles underwent thematic synthesis analysis to find some trends in nutrition knowledge, attitudes, and practices among athletes.
The results have shown that the overall level of nutritional knowledge of the athletes is moderate, with a positive attitude towards the role of nutrition. Nonetheless, the foodie habits tend to be rough and incongruent with the suggested standards. The identification of the enduring knowledge-practice gap can be regarded as one of the crucial findings of the review, suggesting that the better the knowledge and attitude are, the better the nutritional behavior can be. The review also identifies the impact of external variables like accessibility, social conditions, cultural behaviors, and motivation on dietary choices.
The study assumes a modified KAP framework, including moderating variables between attitudes and practices, in light of such findings, and thus provides a better explanation of athlete behavior. The research concludes that it is important to have effective interventions that go beyond enhancing knowledge and responding to environmental and behavioral determinants to promote nutritional habits in athletes.},
        keywords = {Nutrition, Nutritional behaviour, KAP, Knowledge, Attitude and Practice, athletes},
        month = {April},
        }